Cursor vs Windsurf: AI Code Editors Face Off

Cursor is an AI code editor built by Anysphere on top of VS Code, centered on Tab inline completions, a multi-file Agent, and cloud agents. Its pricing page, opened on October 14, 2026, now shows an X subscription system: Free at $0, Plus at $8/month, Premium at $30/month, Super at $100/month, and Ultra at $200/month. Plus covers Grok models only; Premium and above can use third-party models, billed separately at API list price outside the monthly fee, with the usage pool refreshing weekly.

Windsurf started as a Codeium product and was acquired in 2025 by Cognition, the maker of Devin. It is also an AI-native editor forked from VS Code, with its core agent called Cascade and an in-house coding model, SWE-1.7. Beyond the standalone editor, Windsurf offers plugins for JetBrains, Vim, and Xcode. On March 19, 2026, Windsurf replaced its credit-based billing with daily and weekly auto-refreshing quotas, raising Pro from $15 to $20/month.

1. Main individual plan: Cursor's main individual tier is Premium at $30/month; Windsurf's is Pro at $20/month. Both top out at $200/month for individuals (Cursor Ultra, Windsurf Max).
2. Free tier: Cursor Free offers limited agent and chat requests; Windsurf Free gives a light agent quota, while inline edits and Tab completions are unlimited on every tier and never touch the quota.
3. Third-party model billing: On Cursor, third-party models are available from Premium up, billed separately at API list price outside the monthly fee, with spend caps available; on Windsurf, the Pro quota includes OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini frontier models, while the in-house SWE-1.7 and open-source models are free to use.
4. Usage metering: Cursor uses a shared usage pool that refreshes weekly, with top-ups available after it runs out; Windsurf uses daily and weekly auto-refreshing quotas, with overages bought at API pricing. Both scale consumption by model and task complexity.
5. Agent capabilities: Cursor offers an in-editor Agent, cloud agents (from Premium), and the Bugbot code reviewer; Windsurf offers the Cascade agent and Devin Cloud agents (from Pro).
6. Editor coverage: Cursor ships only as a VS Code fork; Windsurf additionally ships plugins for JetBrains, Vim, and Xcode (per third-party reviews).
7. Team plans: Cursor Teams starts at $30/user/month; Windsurf Team starts at $80/month with unlimited flex seats, plus $40/month per full user.

On monthly cost: to bundle OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini frontier-model spend into a $20 monthly fee, Windsurf Pro is the simpler pick; under Cursor's new subscription, third-party models are always billed separately at API list price, and the $30/month Premium pool covers Grok models — heavy third-party use can cost more in practice.

On workflow: if your main editor is JetBrains, Vim, or Xcode and you don't want to switch, Windsurf's plugin form fits better; if you already use Grok or want reviewer-style features like Bugbot, Cursor's new subscription is the smoother fit. Both free tiers let you try before paying for agent quota.